&lt;a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7956445/"&gt;Should workers with severe disabilities be segregated in sheltered workshops?&lt;/a&gt;For decades, people with developmental and intellectual
disabilities – such as cerebral palsy or mental retardation – left high school
and went to work in sheltered workshops, which kept them out of the greater
world of commerce.

Critics of the workshops have long described the businesses as
a regrettable form of segregation that stifled ambitions and left people with
disabilities in dead-end jobs – often for years. Even worse, the Fair Labor
Standards Act allows many workshop providers to pay low-performing piecework
employees as little as pennies an hour.

Many of the workers who labored in the workshops were
intimidated by working in regular jobs. Their caregivers often said they felt
safer knowing the people they loved were secure in the confines of a workshop.

The state of Oregon made a major push in the 1990s to move
people out of the workshops into regular jobs; many workers with disabilities
got job coaches and layers of support from employment agencies that specialized
in their care.

But in recent years, the percentage of those workers toiling
in the general public dropped nearly in half. By early last year, just 16
percent of workers with severe disabilities labored in the general workforce,
while 61 percent toiled in sheltered workshops.

The U.S. Department of Justice joined in a federal lawsuit in
Oregon titled Lane v. Kitzhaber, which is aimed at turning the tide in the
other direction.

Gov. John Kitzhaber quickly issued an executive order that affirmed Oregon's plan to help people with disabilities find and
keep jobs in mainstream workplaces. But plaintiffs in the lawsuit say the state hasn't done nearly enough to integrate
workers with disabilities into the general workforce.

We'd like to know what you think. Please vote before leaving
thoughts in the comment section below.

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